Free software is simply software that respects our freedom — our freedom to learn and understand the software we are using. Free software is designed to free the user from restrictions put in place by proprietary software, and so using free software lets you join a global community of people who are making the political and ethical assertion of our rights to learn and to share what we learn with others.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

NASA Promotes Open Source With New Website

InformationWeek (01/04/12) Elizabeth Montalbano

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) open
government Web site will feature a new site and public forum for sharing
information and tools for its open source activities. The agency will
use code.nasa.gov to engage internal and external groups on open development and possible contributions to projects. In the first phase of code.nasa.gov,
the site will serve as a home for open source, and will offer points of
contact and a directory of current projects. NASA will provide a
discussion forum for its open source concepts, policies, and projects
during the second phase to build a community atmosphere. In the third
phase, the agency will provide tools and mechanisms to help ensure the
success of projects, and also will create and host a tool, service, and
process chain to help facilitate internal and external open source
projects. "Ultimately, our goal is to create a highly visible community
hub that will imbue open concepts into the formulation stages of new
hardware and software projects, and help existing projects transition to
open modes of development and operation," says NASA's William Eshagh.
"We believe that tomorrow's space and science systems will be built in
the open, and that code.nasa.gov will play a big part in getting us there."http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/enterprise-apps/232301300